January 05, 2014

Britain has just 2.71 doctors per 1,000 people... which is fewer than Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania

Britain has fewer doctors per person than nearly all other European countries, a new report has today revealed. There are an average of 2.71 practising medics for every 1,000 people, compared to six in Greece, which tops the list, five in Austria and just under four in Italy. A report by the European Commission ranks the UK 24th out of 27 countries in the EU, behind some of the poorest countries including Bulgaria, Estonia and Latvia.

Only Poland, Romania and Slovenia have fewer doctors per head.

Health groups and unions last night branded the situation extremely worrying and urged the Government to get a grip on staffing levels. Critics said the shortages have serious implications for patient care. Dr Paul Flynn, Chair of the British Medical Association’s Consultants Committee, said: "Policy makers need to get a grip on NHS workforce planning."

Projected imbalances between different specialties will have serious implications for patient care and we are already seeing the effect of staff shortages in key areas such as emergency care. In addition, despite the pledge to protect front-line services, many employers in the NHS are freezing recruitment in response to financial pressures.

We need to align staffing levels to match the changing demands of patients and address issues such as workload pressures and work-life balance that might be deterring medical graduates from choosing certain career paths or moving abroad. Doctors in the NHS face increasingly challenging, high pressured and stressful work environments, often with limited resources and gruelling workloads.

Only by making working practices and environments safe and sustainable will the NHS be able attract and retain the required number and mix of doctors. Doctors in the NHS face increasingly challenging, high pressured and stressful work environments, often with limited resources and gruelling workloads. Only by making working practices and environments safe and sustainable will the NHS be able attract and retain the required number and mix of doctors.

And Rehana Azam, of the union GMB which represents NHS staff, said: ‘Enough is enough, there can be no more cuts to budget or staffing. There is so much pressure on NHS staff because of the shortage and the huge number of patients they treat. It’s extremely worrying, particularly as we are facing the toughest winter in years.

There is no efficient care in the community which means people who otherwise wouldn t need to come to hospital to be treated, are. A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘The number of doctors in the NHS has gone up on average by 3.5 per cent each year over the past 10 years, and there are over 6,600 more doctors than in May 2010.

At the same time, the number of admin staff, managers and senior managers has fallen by nearly 23,000. We set up the first ever national training body, Health Education England, backed by £5 billion funding, to make sure we have the right numbers of doctors and other staff, with the right skills and values, in our NHS. The report was published by the EU Commission as part of its Eurostat regional yearbook 2013 .

The EU figures, showing the number of physicians practising in all EU countries during 2010, come after a string of events which critics say show the NHS faces a staffing crisis. In September, Queen s hospital in Romford and King George s in Ilford, part of the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Trust, asked recruitment agencies to find staff for its overstretched casualty department.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that half of all senior doctor posts go unfilled at accident and emergency departments, putting unsustainable pressure on life-or-death care. And last month, critics called for urgent action after it was reported that almost one in four young A&E doctors who trained in Britain have left to work in Australia or New Zealand.